Cardi B clashed with fans on Sunday when she revealed she might shell out nearly $90,000 for an accessory.
In a tweet that sparked immediate backlash, the “WAP” rapper wondered aloud, “Should I spend 88K for this damn purse ? Omggg it’s tempting.”
Cardi was met with accusations of tone-deafness and insensitivity, especially during a global pandemic that’s caused many people to lose jobs or wages.
While many people defended Cardi’s right to spend her own money, they also said it was unnecessary to debate an expensive splurge on Twitter.
Others suggested she donate the money to charity or Democratic candidates instead.
—BabyLisa (@sidecar542)
In response, Cardi shared
examples of her charitable actions in the past, like donating $1 million for coronavirus relief and meal supplements to New York City medical staff back in April.
“I already donated 2 million dollars this year and I’m doing something very special in a another country that will be done with next year,” she replied to one critic. “What have you donated ?”
She told another that she was only asking her fans, whom she calls her “Bardigang,” because she doesn’t have any celebrity friends.
As she continued to receive criticism, the 28-year-old chart-topper challenged her followers to donate to charities and share the “receipts,” promising to match their amounts.
“Okay let’s do this challenge! Since ya want to tell me to donate soo much …Drop receipts on what YOU have donated too,” Cardi wrote. “I will match it and donate to a organization you have donate as well. LETS START NOW!”
She added: “Who been donating I don’t see them receipts but I see a lot of ‘why don’t you donate money tweets.'”
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As the hours stretched on, Cardi did share examples of her matching small-dollar donations — like $20 to a charity drive in memory of Naya Rivera — but also grew more impassioned in her self-defense.
She mocked one critic for trying to “gatekeep what people tweet,” calling the situation “insane.”
She also replied to HuffPost contributor Yashar Ali, who took issue with Cardi’s claim that she “donated a million dollars to fans thru cashapp 2 months ago.”
“Disclosures from CashApp on this clearly stated that Square, the parent company of CashApp, was the sponsor of this giveaway,” Ali wrote. “Did it happen due to your celebrity? Absolutely. But ‘donated’ is not accurate here.”
“It doesn’t matter how much money you give away, tweeting about buying an $88,000 purse in the midst of a pandemic where people are skipping meals and terrified that they’ll be evicted, is deeply insensitive and unnecessary,” he added. “She chose to tweet it out.”
“Go cry about it,” Cardi replied.
“I never seen u tweet about me when I donated a million dollar twice now you here I didn’t offended no body, didn’t do nothing illegal. I’m not going to apologize because I work my a– off and I ask MY FANS! Which ARE MY FRIENDS A QUESTION! Ya want to be hurt so bad.”
Cardi continued to double down in her own defense, retweeting multiple fans who were defending her.
She also denied “gaslighting people that going thru poverty” and compared her situation to people “making lines to splurge on a PS5.”
“BRO ALL I DID WAS ASK ABOUT A F—IN PURSE ! ooommggggg I’m getting scared to tweet,” she wrote. “Im just going to tweet by bible quotes here.”
At one point, Cardi did offer an apology, though it came with a qualification.
“Ok guys I apologize. There you happy ?! I don’t see ya askin trump for a apology when he out here missing COVID meetings to play golf but,” she wrote, adding the hand signal for “OK.”
Three hours later, Cardi wrote: “Definitely buying the bag now.”
She concluded her evening of tweeting by
calling
her critics “different types of crybabies” and
asking
, “do ya want me to show ya the purse?”
On Monday, Cardi returned to Twitter to show fans “the purse people crying about.”
“It’s not about being cute it’s about the value,” she added. “In 3 years I can auction it for double.”
